03-20-2008, 11:18 PM
Just curious what the opinions are on the recently released papers of Hillary where she claims she was instrumental in various things, but during key moments she was MIA.
Quote:Hillary Clinton missed key presidential moments· Papers cast doubt on claim of first-hand experience
· First lady was often far from scene of negotiations
Daniel Nasaw in Washington The Guardian, Thursday March 20 2008 Article historyAbout this articleClose This article appeared in the Guardian on Thursday March 20 2008 on p31 of the International section. It was last updated at 00:43 on March 20 2008.
Hillary Clinton arrives in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, in August 1998. Photograph: Kevin Wisniewski/Rex Features
On the day that dozens of US cruise missiles rained down on Serbia in an attempt to punish Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic for the country's onslaught against ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, first lady Hillary Clinton was far from the White House war room: she was touring ancient Egyptian ruins.
In her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Hillary Clinton has touted her experience in the White House as preparation to lead in a time of crisis. "Ready on Day One," has been her slogan.
But an initial reading of some of the more than 11,000 pages of Clinton's schedules from her days as first lady, released yesterday by the National Archives and the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library, shows that often she was far from the site of decision making during some of the most pivotal events of Bill Clinton's presidency.
Clinton, who was an attorney and first lady of Arkansas before moving to the White House, frequently claims more than 30 years' experience in public life, contrasting herself with Barack Obama's slimmer resume - he served several years in the Illinois legislature and was elected to the US senate in 2004.
"The schedules do help illustrate Hillary Clinton's extensive and exhaustive work as a public servant and her role as an influential advocate at home and around the world on behalf of our country," Clinton campaign spokesman Jay Carson said in a statement.
But documents from her first lady office threaten to undermine her claim to have played a major role in Clinton's foreign policy decisions.
For instance, Clinton has said she helped negotiate the April 1998 Good Friday agreement between warring factions in Northern Ireland. But while Catholic and Protestant figures hashed out details of a power-sharing agreement in Belfast Clinton was at the National Press Club in Washington at a "Hats on Bella" party honouring Bella Abzug, a congresswoman from New York who had recently died. While President Clinton phoned major participants in the peace talks she met with Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and joined a farewell party for Democratic worker Karen Finney. The day the agreement was inked she met with Philippine first lady Amelita Ramos.
When Nato launched air strikes against Serbia in an attempt to punish Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic for the country's onslaught against ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo Clinton toured Egyptian ruins, including King Tut's tomb and the temple of Hatshepsut. She dined at the Temple of Luxor, and stayed overnight at the Sofitel Winter Palace Hotel there.
Presidents of three Balkan states signed a peace agreement in Dayton, Ohio, in November 1995, ending years of ethnic violence in the former Yugoslavia. Clinton's file lists no public schedule for that day, but indicates she was in Washington.
The documents released yesterday came in response to a conservative organisation's freedom of information request and subsequent lawsuit. The records include schedules from nearly 3,000 days Clinton was in the White House, and detail meetings, trips, speaking engagements and social activities.
Bruce Lindsey, a Little Rock attorney and long time Clinton confidant, vetted the pages prior to their release. National archives staff checked the documents for information sensitive to national security and law enforcement matters.
Nearly a third of the pages have redactions, most of which the archives said were made to protect the privacy of Clinton's associates. The redacted material includes home addresses, telephone numbers and social security numbers, the archives said.
Christopher Farrell, director of investigations and research with Judicial Watch, the organisation behind the two-year-long legal effort to win the documents' release, said he doesn't anticipate finding any "smoking gun" within the reams of pages. He said Lindsey "has enormous discretion" to redact information potentially damaging to Clinton's White House bid. "My expectations are quite low."
Hillary Clinton was present in the White House, however, for at least one significant event of the Clinton presidency. On November 15 1995, when President Clinton is said to have begun his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, she was in the White House, according to her schedule.